Sapping the "juice" from prescription pills
There was a lot of attention a couple decades ago to studies that showed grapefruit juice boosted the absorption into the blood of certain drugs, throwing off dosages. This made "safe" doses of common drugs to treat high cholesterol, elevated blood pressure and irregular heartbeats potentially lethal.
Now, researchers are claiming that grapefruit juice — as well as orange and apple juice — can lower the rate of absorption for some drugs. The list of drugs that can have their absorption rates lowered includes cancer meds, some beta blockers and antibiotics.
Here's the really crazy thing: these interactions can happen up to three days after cutting into a grapefruit or drinking the juice. Apparently, if you're taking pharmaceuticals regularly, you might need to cut grapefruit, apple and orange juices out of your life. Check with your doc to see if the drugs you are taking can have their absorption rates affected by these juices.
The real lesson here is that prescription pills are powerful stuff, and they can and will interact with just about anything. As always, I encourage you to have a frank discussion with your doc about whether you really need to be on the pills you're taking – and whether there might be safer alternatives available.
